Special teams alert

The malaise that dragged the Patriots to 0-3 in the preseason has invaded the kick coverage teams. The Patriots gave up two special-teams touchdowns in a span of 1 minute, 35 seconds Friday.

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By DAVID BROWN

southcoasttoday.com

By DAVID BROWN

Posted Aug. 25, 2008 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 25, 2008 at 12:04 AM

By DAVID BROWN

Posted Aug. 25, 2008 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 25, 2008 at 12:04 AM

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FOXBORO — The self-described "Bozo" who gave the Eagles a 101-yard special-teams touchdown braced himself for a thorough verbal assault.

"I'm going to go see my family and let my wife dog me out for costing us seven points," Patriots fullback Heath Evans said after New England's 27-17 preseason loss to Philadelphia on Friday.

Evans owned up to a mistake that enabled Quintin Demps to run loose for the long kickoff return, but he probably wasn't the only special teamer taking guff from his kin folk.

The Patriots gave up two special-teams touchdowns in a span of 1 minute, 35 seconds in Friday's game. After Demps' kickoff return, DeSean Jackson took a punt 76 yards to the Patriots' end zone as time expired in the first half.

"We know that we let the team down as a unit," special-teams specialist Kelley Washington said after the game. "We have much (higher) standards than that here on our special-teams units."

The preseason malaise that dragged New England to 0-3 in the preseason has invaded the kick coverage teams. And Friday's breakdown was not the kind of situation that would end with Bethann Evans castigating her husband.

"The good thing about it is, you know, we're just going to come in tomorrow morning, we're going to get (yelled) at," Washington said Friday night. "And I think that's positive, because as a unit, we need to step up and make plays like we did last year. We have a lot of talented players out there on our kickoff unit, on our punt unit. We need to take some (chewing) out tomorrow and watch the film and see what we need to correct and go out there and improve on it."

Evans said he didn't fill the gap he was supposed to, which sprung Demps for his 101-yard return. Washington said mistakes of that nature, hardly characteristic in Foxboro, have plagued the coverage units.

"When we watch the films, it just seems like one or two players are out of place, or they just don't get the job done," Washington said. "You know, we have talented players, we've got experienced players, but we just need to put it together."

A common sentiment expressed in the locker room on Friday was the team's failure to execute fundamentals.

"It's just as a unit, as a team, I don't think we're really all clicking together," Washington said. "There's some good individual performances, but it's a team game. We need to play as a team."

Jackson's touchdown return was the result of mistakes before and after the kick. Head coach Bill Belichick said he would have preferred that Chris Hanson punt the ball out of bounds, denying Jackson a chance to return it. Then the coverage team failed to stop Jackson.

"It wasn't good situational play," Belichick said. "We didn't execute the play we should have in that situation. I'll take the responsibility for that, but regardless you still have to cover him. It wasn't very well handled at all."

Washington said the tongue lashing he anticipated was necessary for a team that has yet to congeal.

"That will be good for the whole team," Washington said. "That will be good for the special-teams unit. That will be good for the rookies. Which is good, because I'm sure a lot of focus in tomorrow's meeting will be on the special-teams' side of the ball, because we didn't put up a good performance at all out there."

Poor performance may not count now, but less than two weeks remain before the start of the regular season.

"I know that none of us have the attitude where things are just automatically going to click on in the regular season," Washington said.